Yunior García Aguilera is a Cuban actor, playwright, and activist, founder of Trébol Teatro and the Facebook group Archipiélago. He was born in Holguín, Cuba in 1982.
His long and solid theatrical career began when he was just in fourth grade, writing and performing alongside classmates. In his hometown of Holguín, he joined the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), which allowed him to gain experience and publish his works. He took on the artistic direction of the theater company Alas Buenas, whose play, Sangre, was awarded seven prizes at the National Small Format Festival in Santa Clara.
At the age of 17, he entered the National School of Art (ENA) specializing in acting. In 2003, he founded the Trébol Teatro project alongside young actors who graduated from ENA, with the aim of creating their own discourse and a creative, innovative space. That same year, he completed his studies as an actor at the ISA (Higher Institute of Art), graduating with a gold degree.
He has written scripts for television and film. Pig (Short fiction film made in 2018) was featured in the 40th edition of the Latin American Film Festival.
Yunior was one of the main figures of the November 27, 2020 (27N) protests that took place in front of the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) by a group of artists, intellectuals, activists, and the general public following the events that occurred at the San Isidro Movement headquarters the night before. On November 26, the police evicted the young people who had taken refuge in that headquarters in order to demand the government's release of rapper Denis Solís González. Some had also been on hunger strike for several days.
From this peaceful demonstration, a group was democratically elected that met with the Deputy Minister of Culture, Fernando Rojas, and other government representatives. The goal was to engage in dialogue to reach agreements that would respect creative freedoms, freedom of expression, and press freedom, as well as to put an end to the repression of artists whose work diverges from the official message established by the Cuban regime. Yunior was part of the group along with Katherine Bisquet, Tania Bruguera, Camila Acosta, and others.
The playwright made headlines again as a result of the events that took place in Cuba on July 11, 2021 (11J), when people across the island spontaneously took to the streets in a historic demonstration against living conditions, poor government management, and lack of freedoms. They peacefully protested alongside other young artists outside the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) when they were violently forced into a garbage truck by State Security agents.
Subsequently, he was transferred to the Vivac prison in Arroyo Naranjo and was released days later with a precautionary measure that prohibited him from going outside. From his home, García Aguilera became one of the most visible faces of this social uprising. He granted interviews to numerous international media outlets and television, where he defended the Cuban people's right to build a different country while denouncing the violent repression that resulted in several disappearances and the unjust imprisonment of more than 600 demonstrators.
In July 2021, the Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez published a statement questioning the police repression against demonstrators during the 11J protests. Yunior responded to Silvio with a post on his social media that quickly went viral, in which he asked the musician for 15 minutes of dialogue. A few days later, this meeting took place at the Ojalá studio of the troubadour.
García Aguilera defines himself as "a civic artist who wants to build a better country where his son can defend his beliefs without facing violence in the streets and can think freely without having to emigrate". He does not see himself as a politician, but rather as "a citizen who promotes ideas and wants to transform his reality and advocates for a horizontal leadership, based on consensus, where collective intelligence prevails, and power and decisions do not rest with a single person".*(1)
On August 9, 2021, Archipiélago was created, a Facebook group with over 23,000 followers that aims to give a voice to all Cubans who want to build a new Cuba, including those in exile and the diaspora, while also setting concrete goals for that construction.
Those objectives are:
1. Fight for the liberation of all individuals who were detained on July 11, 2021.
2. Attempt to carry out the first peaceful anti-government protest authorized with all legal guarantees, without repression or violent incidents.
3. Convene a plebiscite with all guarantees under the 2019 constitution that allows the sovereign will of the people of Cuba to be decided at the polls.
In September 2021, Archipiélago requested authorization from the Government to march against violence in Havana on November 20. In the following days, other provinces of the island submitted this request to their respective Provincial Government offices, thereby joining the call.
Like other activists, Yunior has been besieged in his own home, restricting his freedom of movement. He has been interrogated several times by State Security officials and is a victim of daily harassment by the repressive forces, even being monitored by as many as eight agents at once.
On October 4, 2021, the Center for Studies on the Rule of Law, Cuba Próxima, announced the addition of the playwright to its Deliberative Council.
Source:
(1) and (2) taken from Proyecto Archipiélago, interview with Mónica Baró, August 13, 2021, 23yFlagler
